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The Qarthan Civilization
Qartha was a civilization that lasted from 3,500 BCE to 800 BCE. At it's maxium extent, it covered most of Tunisia, portions of Sardinia, and much of the coast of Western Libya. It ended due to a varity of factors, though most assume the main cause was the lack of a true central authority and the loss of the Sardinian War with the Isim. The Beginnings and Rise of Qartha Qartha began as an expansionist power from early on in it's history, annexing a rival tribe to the south of them as soon as they had mastered Archery. A unique system of kingship, where the richest man in the city inherited the nation allowed for a series of good dynasties to expand, especially against the Berbers of the south, who were a near constant threat to the nation, with their constant rading. The early period of Qarthan history ends with a great plague. What accounts survive from the time are basically myth among the Berber peoples of the area, but they are the only accounts from the time, as the Qarthans never developed a system of writng. The Myths tell of a great plague destroying many towns, ending thousands of lives, and ultimately ending in the invention of Animal Husbandry and Camel Riding. After the end of the great plague, the Qarthans began to expand once again, this time riding east, into Libya. One province was slaughter nearly wholly, with Qarthan settlers moving into the area and quickly intergrating into the Empire. The Fall of Qartha The Qarthans ultimately failed to last past the Iron Age. By no fault of it's people mind you, or their rulers. As the borders fluctuated during this period of the Iron Age, the Qarthan peoples began to blend with the local populations of their lands. After a generation, most Qarthans outside the city of Qartha did not call themselves this. They called themselves by what ever tribe they blended into, and as the period wore on, the various provinces of the Qarthan civilization slowly, quietly, began to leave. The rulers of Qartha were happy to see these non-Qarthans leave, and soon enough, by 860 BCE, the lands of Qartha reverted back to the lands around the city of Qartha, and the city itself. The city of Qartha lasted long than the empire that had grown and receded from it, and remained a city of strong walls, a large port, and stone buildings organized by class. In 850 BCE, Qarthans began to revert to herding, after a particularly devastating famine, and this steady decline of population continue throughout the period. The City was still alive, due to the Herdsmen needing places to sleep and trade, but it was greatly changed. The streets, many days, were silent, and the marketplaces were no longer flushed with goods or people. Many blocks of the city began to fall into disrepair after years of disuse. In 840 BCE, a whole block of the city came tumbling down after a particularly violent thunderstorm. It was not repaired, and many of the outer boroughs of the city fell into the same state of rubble and disrepair as the people of Qartha abandoned their city. In 830 BCE, the city's outer walls, long crumbling from disrepair, finally came tumbling down. They were no longer needed, as the inner walls of the city protected around a thousand inhabitants. In 820 BCE, the final blow to the city came in the form of a Plague. It's effects killed or scattered the remaining people, and the city of Qartha fell to it's last inhabitants, the rats. Soon they left too. All that was left of this city was a bunch of ruins. Locals would continue to return to the site, out of some reverence of their ancestors, and to see how far they had fallen. By 810 BCE, the Qarthan language was no longer spoken fully, instead being merged into several dialects of Berber languages. At the end of this period, the Qarthans were truly dead as a culture. Their city had decayed to a graveyard to the success of a long dead people, and the city was completely left alone by locals, who considered it cursed by the souls of it's old inhabitants, who would forever mourn the loss of their city, culture, and empire.